Microsoft Academia Accelerator reinforces need to integrate academia

Microsoft India hosted AXLE 2018, a Microsoft and academia collaboration showcase. For the past five years, Microsoft has been working closely with the students and faculty of some of India’s top colleges through the Microsoft Academia Accelerator program. This day-long celebration of the achievements of the academic year, presented an interesting line up of speaker sessions and panel discussions from Microsoft and faculty. It also showcased 16 top engineering projects from across campus hackathons conducted over the year.

Academia Accelerator is one of Microsoft’s most comprehensive campus engagement programs aimed at building a deep, long-term association between industry and academia in India and reiterates the company’s mission to enable people to realize their full potential. Students displayed solutions based on popular technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality at the showcase held at Microsoft campus in Hyderabad. Learning, accessibility and road safety were amongst some of the favored themes which were showcased. The shortlist of projects was a result of a yearlong engagement where more than 2000+ students participated across 16 colleges and built over 350 projects.

Building on the close association during the year, faculty and senior leadership of Microsoft came together to discuss topics such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and most importantly, the need for the IT industry and academia to work together to fuel innovation.

“Academia Accelerator aims to provide insights to students about important technology trends and practices and also adding the layer of cutting-edge industry know-how to the existing Computer Science curriculum, thereby”.saidAnil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Ltd. “The success of this program is testament to the great engineering talent we have in India. We have seen significant uptake for the Academia Accelerator program in the last fiveyears as students recognize the importance of understanding technology trends and undergoing practical training sessions during their formative years,”he added.

As with every year, the program stressed the concepts of teamwork and collaboration as well as multi-disciplinary focus that took students beyond pure technology or code into other equally important determinants of success, such as user experience, design, customer value propositions.

Microsoft is committed to fostering innovation and creating a real impact on communities. In line with this, the key focus is on empowering students to think innovatively to craft solutions for real time challenges. Initiatives such as the Microsoft Academia Accelerator represent a tremendous learning opportunity for students. In addition to skills and training that launch incredible careers, students receive unparalleled hands-on experience, guidance and mentorship from industry luminaries, opening doors to a future as an entrepreneur, innovator or technologist. Through these programs, students are empowered to dream big, build creatively, learn through competition and boldly bring their ideas to life as they gain lifelong career skills throughout their journey.